It was a BAD week for George Mason University, which faced more criticism for its recent announcement that it’ll rename its law school after the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia thanks to $30 million in donations – the largest gift in university history.
Now the faculty senate has expressed “deep concerns” about the gifts and the renaming. Members questioned how much influence private donors might have on academic integrity, and whether policies were violated in accepting the terms of the gift, the Washington Post reported.
It’s a fight for transparency and academic freedom, the faculty senate said in its majority vote to ask for an indefinite delay of the renaming. The vote is just a recommendation though, and isn’t binding to administrators.
George Mason’s president wrote in a letter that the school isn’t backing down. The university “remains an example of diversity of thought, a place where multiple perspectives can be dissected, confronted and debated for the benefit and progress of society at large. Rejecting a major naming gift in honor of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice on the basis that some of us disagree with some of his opinions would be inconsistent with our values of diversity and freedom of thought.”
A Virginia higher-education oversight agency is expected to give final approval on the name change this month.
